The Marvel Cinematic Universe truly is pulling out all the stops when committing to this extended universe that they are integrating characters audiences haven't seen in 14 years. The latest reports that Tim Blake Nelson, who played Samuel Sterns in The Incredible Hulk back in 2008, will be returning to the MCU all these years later.
At the D23 Expo, Marvel confirmed that Nelson will return to play Sterns, or more specifically, his alter ego, The Leader, in the upcoming MCU film, Captain America: New World Order, which is currently in production. The Incredible Hulk hinted that Sterns had morphed into The Leader as a means to warrant sequels that were never greenlit.
The announcement was shared on Twitter by IGN, whose reporters were in the audience at D23. Not much is known about the role Sterns will play in the movie since it has only now been confirmed that he will be coming back after almost a decade and a half since he last played him. More importantly, the MCU may have to explain where he's been all these years since The Leader was a very powerful villain in the comics that was, more or less, ignored after being introduced. That's not to say it's impossible to re-integrate him The MCU has reintegrated characters from The Incredible Hulk gradually since the movie first came out in 2008. General Ross came back eight years later in Captain America: Civil War, and Emil Blonsky, aka, Abomination, has since returned in Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and, more recently, She-Hulk.
More potential issues include that there were a lot of loose threads that Marvel ignored after they decided not to expand on the storylines The Incredible Hulk tried setting up for future sequels. Not only was it clear The Leader was up next in the story, but he also had Bruce Banner's blood, which he diluted into what looked like hundreds of samples that the movie stated had the potential to do a lot for humanity. Now that he had Banner's blood in his mind, he could have very well used those samples for evil deeds. It would seem likely since The Leader's superpower was his super intelligence, but up until now, we had never heard from him, so presumably, he was never a threat.
Maybe Marvel can simply overlook that since General Ross' career was presumably ruined at the end of The Incredible Hulk due to his involvement in creating Abomination, but when he returned eight years later, he was the US Secretary of State, so clearly, creating a Hulk-like being that was set on destroying everything in sight was water was under the bridge. Marvel may very well do the same thing with Sterns since they've glossed over past plotlines like that, and not just with Ross.
Putting all of that aside, seeing a character like Sterns come back after all the time that's passed should intrigue Marvel fans, because, even though his comic counterpart was a supervillain, The Incredible Hulk portrayed him as an ally to Bruce, who was trying to help get the Hulk out of him above all else. At the same time, he was someone who had different intentions with Bruce's blood than Bruce did, but it wasn't for evil purposes. So the question remains, is he going to be a villain, a hero, or perhaps, an antihero?
The Incredible Hulk can currently be watched on HBO Max
Source: IGN/Twitter